OMG I thought I was the only one with the panic attacks, I just had to see my doctor to curb those. I am also petrified of the surgery because you hear so many horror stories right after surgery, but you never hear the results from people after months or a year. It has been 4 months now for me with a bad fissure

cutlass, don't hesitate to have the surgery. I would cry every time I even thought about having a bowel movement the pain was so intense. I had the surgery 4 months ago and I, too, only wish I'd had it done sooner. No incontinence problems - slight gas incontinence day after surgery, but that was it. All the best.

I posted earlier (March) asking about the surgery. I had LIS and fissurectomy 16 April. It was very painful afterwards, entire days of agony. But it turns out it might have gotten infected right away. From the day of the surgery to 14 of July I had pain that would last for weeks and then no pain for a few weeks, back and forth. Turns out finally diagnosed as having abscess at the site of the surgery. So I had another surgery 14 July to drain the abscess. Really painful, another 2 weeks off work. Still having very slight leakage issues but been pain free for weeks now. Surgeon said maybe once a year he needs to have someone go back to the OR to fix an infection, and I happened to be that person.

Despite months of pain I don't regret it at all. I've been having fissures for 6-7 years, one that lasted 2 years until it healed. Pain every day with no hope of it ending. I'm so glad I finally took control. The surgery healed the 4 months of a chronic fissure within a couple weeks, it was just the site of the surgery that caused me so much grief. I would do it again in a second at this point.

I am know I sound like a broken record but my fear of this surgery is so overwhelming. Like I said not many people post how they are doing post 6,7,10 etc weeks after surgery. I am at the point where I am falling into a depression over the pain but I am not sure the pain from the surgery sounds much better than what I am experiencing now. I made all the diet changes I was supposed to fiber, water, soft foods, and still nothing. My BMs are soft and sometimes watery and I can go a couple days with no pain. But when it is a bad one wow does it hurt. The first Colo Rectal Doc I saw said I absolutely do not want to have this surgery (she scared me) a second opinion Doc was almost too quick to the draw and wanted to perform the surgery right away! I chickened out and cancelled it so I could do research, and just like them I find mixed results on these posts. In need of some further advice. Thanks.

I am know I sound like a broken record but my fear of this surgery is so overwhelming. Like I said not many people post how they are doing post 6,7,10 etc weeks after surgery. I am at the point where I am falling into a depression over the pain but I am not sure the pain from the surgery sounds much better than what I am experiencing now. I made all the diet changes I was supposed to fiber, water, soft foods, and still nothing. My BMs are soft and sometimes watery and I can go a couple days with no pain. But when it is a bad one wow does it hurt. The first Colo Rectal Doc I saw said I absolutely do not want to have this surgery (she scared me) a second opinion Doc was almost too quick to the draw and wanted to perform the surgery right away! I chickened out and cancelled it so I could do research, and just like them I find mixed results on these posts. In need of some further advice. Thanks.

I've done the LIS surgery one month ago; unfortunately I can not say to you that it's an easy process: these last weeks were the worst of my life due to the post surgery pain; unfortunately I've developped an infection with abcsess which send me back to a 2nd surgery on the last 27th July; I'm now starting to see some minor improvements: less pain and easier bowel movements; During the last month I've cryed a couple of times due to the "so intense pain" and I admit to have regreted, during the worst moments, for doing the surgery; but now, if I go back in time and think in all those years that I've spent suffering with the several anal fissures that were so difficult to heal I have to conclude that it's better to suffer during one or two months than spend the rest of our lives living with pain and fighting against these fissures; I just hope that this surgery will solve my fissures issue- for now it's too early to have a final conclusion on this matter.
I would not say to anyone : do the LIS without doubt; I would say, if you can't live anymore with anal fissures, maybe the LIS is your last option; but be prepared for some hard times

Cutlass68...I feel for you. I struggled for over a year with this decision. I saw the first surgeon in the 90's who recommended conservative treatment. Over the years, all the doctors, internal med, general surgeons and colorectal surgeons, did not recommend the surgery. However...none of these doctors seemed to emphathize with the pain I was experiencing so I'm not surprised that they did not recommend the surgery. It was often insulting, because I am overweight, that the answer I often received was to eat fiber and lose weight. Though I'm sure it would have helped, I don't think it was the end all, be all solution. Exercise was not easy when even walking caused intense itching and burning. Plus I had the added "benefit" of getting flu like symptoms during these episodes (low fever, fatigue) that caused me to miss work sometimes. And as you can see, there are people on here who are physically fit and eat well. Only once did a doctor show any true concern for my pain and most likely because I was in the ER with a temp of 102 and writhing in pain. (The fissure had caused a systemic infection...no anal abscess found though).

But back to the point. Earlier this year I saw an internal medicine doctor to get some pain reliever for another episode and he mentioned that he had one before and it was horrible. He said that he understood that the last thing I wanted to hear was to eat more fiber. He prescribed me lidocaine, which is what I asked for, and recommended the surgeon that helped him. I saw the surgeon who said that I had quite a bit of scar tissue that would make healing without the surgery difficult. I read and re-read the stories on this board and anywhere else I could find them. It took me a few months and one surgery cancellation to decide to go ahead with it. Well, my experience thus far is documented on here. It hasn't been pretty but I think I am getting better. I hope to be able to post good things one to two months out. All I can say to you is to take your time, try the other methods, consult a reputable colorectal surgeon and ultimately you will make a decision that you can live with.

I'd agree 100% with what dcarvalho said. If you look back, you'll see that I'm post #4 in this thread from over a year ago.

After my post, I tried all of the ointments -- nitroglycerin, nifedipine, and diltiazem -- along with Miralax (which is an excellent stool softener IMO). That got my fissure pain manageable and tolerable, but still didn't allow the fissure to heal.

In October 2009 I got Botox injections, and that actually allowed the fissure to completely heal. It was months of bliss following Botox. Months of bliss before I re-tore the fissure, that is. I guess I got a little careless with my diet and stool softener regimen and the fissure came back around the beginning of 2010.

Anyway, in May 2010 I finally opted for LIS. I did so even though the pain from my fissure was completely tolerable at that point. Yes it sucked, but it wasn't completely dominating my life like it did in the very beginning. I went into surgery because I wanted to be 100% again with no pain whatsoever. I thought I'd heal right up afterward and be able to put the entire episode behind me.

Well, as it turns out, after LIS, I also developed a perianal abscess, and had to have a second surgery to have it drained. The difference between my case and dcarvalho's case is that my abscess was caught early, just 2 weeks after LIS.

It's now been 3 months since surgery, and I still can't say that I'm completely painfree. It's a little better than before surgery, but I definitely still get anal pain sometimes, and it took a long time to even get here. For a long time after surgery, I was feeling all sorts of weird sensations in my anus. I'm a computer engineer so I worked from home for a month following surgery because sitting was very uncomfortable unless I took narcotic painkillers. I still eat a very high fiber, veggie-heavy diet, and take Miralax every day.

Maybe in the long run things will pan out, but as it stands now, I'm on the fence as to whether surgery was worth it personally.

I should point out that many people do heal right up immediately after surgery. But many do not and take much longer to heal. Some have complications, and others have to have surgery more than once. So don't take any single person's experience as the final word, but read over an aggregate of many people's experiences so that you can set expectations realistically going in. For me, surgery was definitely the last resort, and I tried every conservative treatment possible before doing it.

I'm also on another board that's dedicated entirely to anal fissures, and read a lot of people's experiences both with and without surgery. The majority of people who have surgery are ultimately happy with it, although it's common for healing to take longer than the "just 1 or 2 weeks" often quoted by colorectal surgeons. Personally I would take that as a best case scenario. The average for feeling pretty good following LIS is more around 1 to 1.5 months from the many experiences I've read about. And complete healing of the fissure takes months, so you do have to be careful diet-wise for a while afterward, although many people are asymptomatic well before complete healing has occurred.

One last thing: for most people, the main fear surrounding LIS is the risk of permanent incontinence. From my personal experience as well as those of others I've read about, permanent incontinence or gross incontinence is extremely rare. On this other board I'm on, we've never had a single member end up with permanent incontinence, and absolutely tons of them have had either LIS or fissuretectomy. But temporary mild incontinence -- meaning gas that slips out or minor soilage -- in the weeks and sometimes months afterward is not uncommon. I did not have gas incontinence following surgery, but I did have occasional light leakage for maybe 2 months, after which it slowly tapered off. This is just something to keep in mind and be aware of, but I wouldn't consider it an argument against surgery since it's just temporary.

Sorry for the long post but hope it helps, Cutlass and any others who are on the fence. If I had to sum it up, I'd say that it all depends on how much your fissure is interfering with your life and whether you've exhausted all other treatments like Botox already. One other thing to keep in mind is that sometimes just leaving fissures alone can lead to complications too. In rare instances, abscesses or fistulas can form from fissures. So there's a bit of risk either way.

Hi, Just read abt ur worries, I share the same problem as yours. I have been suffering since last one and a half year and finally got my surgery done on 16th June 10, but i cant see any improvement.. went through a hell out of pain since then..I m very much worried.. I dont think there is any permanent solution for this.

One thing to keep in mind is that folks who have successful surgeries are back into their lives full swing - on the golf course, on summer vacations, etc. and are far less likely to post positive results than those who are suffering through complications of surgery. It may skew your perception statistically because you're not going to read as many posts from people who have moved on. My heart goes out to folks who had post-op infections, etc. because the anal area has so many nerve endings. I know so much more now about my sphincter than I ever thought I would, but it was so tight that my fissure never would have healed without the loosening of the sphincter muscle by surgery. My sphincter and I are friends again. No incontinence. Get a very experienced specialist.